What a Week!

Last week, I attended my first Colorado Rockies game with my friend Tracy from Bartlesville. It was a beautiful night to sit outside and watch the game. The Rockies were playing the Cubs, and apparently I witnessed history. The Rockies lost in an exciting extra innings game, but the Cubs won their 10,000th game in franchise history.



The next 12 hours were a bit tense. I managed to get stuck in a parking garage after the game. Long story short, I had no cash with me so I parked in a garage that took credit cards. The machine where you pay malfunctioned and wouldn't take credit cards or cash (I know that because a perfect stranger gave me $5 to help me out after my credit cards didn't work. It didn't work either). Someone finally showed up from the facility and raised the gate, but I was really concerned I was going to be sleeping in my car. I got home much later than I had hoped, had some things to do for work, and I still hadn't packed for my trip to St. Louis the next morning. I cut it close, but I made it to the airport just in time for my trip to St. Louis to attend The Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling. It's a weekend I had been looking forward to for a long time.



65 women from around the world made the pilgrimage to one of our favorite knitting shops It's amazing how you can take so many people, most with very little in common, add knitting needles and yarn and create instant friendships. I really enjoyed getting to meet everyone.

I got to meet Sheri, the woman behind The Loopy Ewe. I was surprised to find out that she's as tall as I am!



Stacy was my roommate. It was so good to see my friend from Oklahoma.



I finally got to meet my Loopy swap partner, Julie in person.



And I got to go shopping in person at my favorite online store. It was so much fun and there was so much to choose from! This is not my shopping bag, but I don't have a photo yet of what I bought, and honestly, this is a much more impressive bag of yarn than what I brought home. My new friend Megann has some mad yarn shopping skills.



I also took classes from Wendy and Cookie A. I've been a fan of Wendy's blog for a while, and I absolutely love Cookie's patterns so it was exciting to learn from them. They're both very talented ladies.

The weekend flew by and even though I had big plans, I didn't manage to finish a single project. I think I made more progress on my sock on the plane coming home than I did while I was sitting in the knitting lounge. There were just too many people to chat with. It was a wonderful weekend and I can't wait until next year.

I'll end the post with the cutest photo ever. Ashford apparently has overcome her camera shyness, and Purl has no issue with showing off her chubby belly. I have the cutest kittens ever.

Spinning

For the last three weeks, I've been driving to Boulder to take a spinning class and I have loved every minute of it. It's inspired me to spend more time working on my technique.

One of the bonuses of taking the class is that every week you get to bring home a different wheel to play with. Last week I brought home a Louet S10.



This week I brought home a Lendrum folding wheel. My camera battery died before I had a chance to take a photo. I worked on my assignment for class over the weekend, and I also finished spinning some fiber I had started several months ago. This photo doesn't do it justice.



I can't believe it took me so long to finish this gorgeous stuff. It's superwash Corriedale from Hello Yarn in the Toxic colorway. The fiber was a bit slippery to spin and got frustrating at times, but I love the colors and the finished skein is amazing. I have about 220 yards. Now I need to find the perfect pattern to show it off. Any suggestions?



I also finally finished my Rainbow Socks (on Ravelry). I don't have proof of the 2nd sock because of the silly camera battery, but I swear they're done. I've only been working on this pair of socks since October. They're really cute, but I think they're just a little too small for me.



To top off my week of fibery geekiness, I am leaving on Thursday to head to St. Louis for the The Spring Fling at The Loopy Ewe. I'm so excited to see my friend Stacy from Oklahoma and it will be a fun weekend of nothing but knitting. I think I'm going to need to pack my big suitcase. I have a lot of projects I want to take to work on, and there might be a bit of shopping at The Loopy Ewe to do while I'm there.

My coworkers are funny

I had a meeting this morning, which gave my coworkers plenty of time to desecrate my Jayhawk bobblehead doll.



I'll admit that it's pretty funny and that I'm impressed with their bobblehead doll clothes making skills, but it's just very very wrong.

Since my last post, lots has been going on in my crazy world of fiber. I got my Loopy Ewe Spring Fling Swap package from my awesome swap partner, Julie. She definitely spoiled me with a gorgeous skein of Tempted sock yarn, a couple of Interweave Knits magazines, a cute sock bag and a ladybug tape measure that the kittens immediately decided to hijack.



The yarn will make a very fun pair of spring socks. I'm looking for the perfect pattern.

I also started my spinning class at Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder Thursday night. It is a bit of a drive for a weekly class, but I think it's going to be worth it. In our first class we learned how to pick out a fleece, wash it, prepare it for spinning and how to use a drop spindle. It was so much fun! I came home from the class with an eighth of a fleece to wash before our next class. As soon as I walked in the door with the fleece, the kitties noses went into overdrive. The fleece had to be hidden away for safety.

Look at the crazy eyes on that kitten.



Then, Friday night, the Yarn Harlot came to Denver for a book signing. I convinced my knitting coworker to go with me, and we had a wonderful time. I've enjoyed reading her blog for a long time, and she's just as funny in person. I think the bookstore was a bit overwhelmed by the 200+ knitters who came out for the event.

And finally, I finished the Koolhaas hat last night. Just in time for spring. I used the softest yarn in the world, Malabrigo, in the Paris Nights colorway. I love this pattern. I guess I'll have something to look forward to wearing next winter.



Tonight, I'll be watching the Jayhawks win (hopefully) the NCAA basketball tournament. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Rules

Life at Chez Zed is pretty easy-going, but in order to maintain some sense of decorum, there are a couple of rules that must be followed. We don't allow any of them to be broken.

1. Yarn is not a toy.



2. If the toy is brought to you, you throw it immediately. Even if it is not brought directly to you, you still must throw it immediately. If the toy is dropped in your general vicinity, it is considered to be delivered directly to you and you are expected to drop everything to find the toy and throw it. If this rule is broken, you will be scolded.



3. No one is allowed on the kitchen counters or any other surface in the kitchen. We keep all two or four feet on the floor.





I'm a bit concerned we might need a refresher course on staying on the floor in the kitchen. Based on the number of kitty paw prints on the cupboard door, I don't think this is the first time this rule has been broken.

A busy weekend

Last weekend I finally got to show off my new house to some out of town visitors. My mom, dad, older sister, Linda and my niece and nephew, Megan and Noah made the drive from Des Moines to Denver to visit Mary and me. We had a very fun time.

We started out the weekend on Friday at Mary and Phil's house in Boulder with a walk down Pearl Street (with a stop at Ben & Jerry's...yum!) then a gianormous pizza for dinner from Cosmo's. Yum, again. On Saturday after some time in the mountains, we made the trek down to Denver to my house. Sunday was a lazy day, but Linda and I snuck out for a bit to stop by Colorful Yarns to do a bit of stash enhancing. They were having a St. Patty's Day sale where you drew a shamrock out of a bowl to find out your discount. I was very happy with my 20% discount. I brought home some Malabrigo for hats and a couple of skeins of sock yarn. So much fun!



On Monday, we decided to take the light rail to downtown to have lunch at one of my favorite Denver restaurants, Stuben's. They have the best grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries.

Here we are on the light rail (Poor Noah climbed a mountain unscathed, but then took a tumble off a curb in a parking lot. His nose took the brunt of the fall.)



Then we had to take the free shuttle bus through downtown to get closer to the restaurant. Megan took this photo:





The weekend went by way too fast, there were so many other things I had wanted to do, but I'll just have to save them for their next visit. I think the kitties were relieved when the three-year old left. Purl was not this relaxed during the visit.



Notice the belly on this kitten? She's getting a bit pudgy. We might have to start thinking about a kitty diet.

Since the travelers left, I've finished the socks you can see from space.



They started out to be identical twins, but apparently I had an skein of yarn with a mistake in it. They forgot the royal blue in the first sock I made, so I guess I have to settle for fraternal twins. I really love the way these fit. I'm not sure where I'll ever wear them, but they were fun to make. I think I knit faster because I want to get to the color changes.

In other yarn related news, I received my first package from The Loopy Ewe sock club last week. It's not a color I would have picked out on my own, but that's the beauty of a sock club. It gets me out of my color rut. I'm very excited about the pattern. I think it will become a favorite.

The best seats in the house

It was an exciting day at Chez Zed (thanks to my Canadian friend Mark for the new household nickname!). After almost a month of attempting to unpack without a place to put a lot of my things, our new furniture was finally delivered. I say "our" because it clearly is not just for me to enjoy. The kitties have quickly picked out their favorite places to hang out.

Ashford is fond of the ottoman that came with the new faux leather chair.


And I don't think that Xena is ever going to come downstairs again. She has claimed the new bed with the fancy schmancy mattress as her own. She normally comes downstairs to hang out with me during the evening, but she has refused to move from the bed...even when I was trying to put the sheets on. I hope she'll share it with me tonight.

The view from my balcony

I still have to remind myself that I actually get paid to live in Colorado. I love the clear days when the mountains come out and have a crystal clear blue sky behind them. It takes my breath away every time I see them. When I was house shopping I knew that buying a place with a mountain view would be a bit out of my price range. But, somehow, I was lucky enough to get one.

This is the view from my balcony



But so is this



And when I moved in two weeks ago, that was just a pile of dirt. Within a few months, it will look like this.



But until then, I am living in prime real estate.

The kitties even line up to see the view.



The kitties are also very happy that the movers brought their bunk bed.



And I'm happy because I finally finished a pair of socks. I have finished several single socks recently, only to be distracted by another skein of yarn instead of casting on for the twin, so it's nice to have something that I'll actually be able to wear.



This is Cookie A's Monkey pattern, but instead of purling, I knit all the stitches. I stole the idea from someone on Ravelry, and I really like how it looks with the modification. The yarn is my friend Stacy's Tempted Good Grrl in the Twilight colorway. She's a yarn dyeing rock star.

Speaking of Stacy, a surprise arrived in my mailbox the other day. She sent me these absolutely adorable kitty stitch markers. She also sent me some other things, but we'll save that for another day!